Octopuses seen punching fish that don’t cooperate on hunting trips in rare video

A new study has found that octopuses can actually work with other fish to hunt and will punch them if they do not cooperate.

The research, published in the journal Nature on Monday 23 September, suggests that the famously intelligent octopuses can organise the group’s decisions, including what they should prey upon.

Researchers witnessed the cephalopod species punching companion fish, apparently to keep them on task.

“I think sociality, or at least attention to social information, is way more deep-rooted in the evolutionary tree than we might think,” Eduardo Sampaio, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the lead author of the research, said.

“We are very similar to these animals.”